Q1. When ever I download something from the internet the download speed is very slow it hovers between 0.1 kb to 3.3 kb. What should I do to increase the speed of the download? Have been using dial up connection.

You can use a download manager such as download Accelerator or Getright to speed up the downloading process.

There are also a couple of things you can try.

(1)Try changing the time of download(2) Try doing it over week ends.(3) If there are mirrored sites try picking the one closer to us

The download rate depends on various factors like

(a) speed of the server,(b) level of traffic on the server,(c) level of traffic at your ISP (d) line conditions.

Check on your land line if it is quiet or if there is noise like crackles, cross connections or any spurious noise.

If you experience any noise then you ask your phone service provider to set it right.

If your mail comes down at normal speed then I guess things are in order. Otherwise, you need to complain to your ISP about the sluggishness you are experiencing.

Real Download, Download Accelerator and GetRight are Download managers designed to download files from the Internet. Their key features are the ability to pause and resume downloads, recover from dropped Internet connections, schedule downloads, and show informative content while you download.

Q1. What is meant by Disk Defragmentation and how often should it be performed?

Disk defragmentations allow all the scattered information segments come closer to each other. This in turn means faster CPU functionality, and reduction in delay.

It is good for all operating systems. It is generally recommended that you perform the task at least once a month.

As you go on using the computer, the files will be saved in different locations on the hard drive. Sometimes, different fragments of a file may be saved in different locations. When you defrag the drive, all these files and file fragments are placed in a linear order for faster access. Its a good idea to defrag the drive now and then.

There is nothing much you should really do. Go to system tools under start menu > programs > accessories > system tools and select disk defragmenter. In the application, you select the drive to defrag and leave it till it finishes.

OR

1. Go to my computer2. Select the drive3. right click4. choose R or properties5. control tab to tools6. Start defrag from here.

If you are doing this for the first time, be aware that it may take hours. I suggest, you start the defrag just before you go to bed in the night and let it do its work till the morning. You might want to close all other programs including antivirus programs to make it slightly faster. The screen reader can be running. If you are using Windows XP and are comfortable with the command prompt, I prefer to use the defrag command because it is much quicker than the graphical version. Go to the command prompt and enter defrag c: to defrag the C drive.

Q4. When I run disk de fragmentation it goes upto about 8 % or so and then again starts from the very beginning and does this over and over. Why does this happen?

While defragmenting it is best to leave the system alone idling.

If you are doing something along with defrag then firstly it has to swap a good deal and again defrag those swapped areas. Besides using software based synthesizer’s also causes disk swaps.

Well, the problem is that there may be some background processes running on your computer which come in the way of disk defragmentor. Try to close all applications. You can have Jaws running.

The reason why it goes to 0 is because your default swap drive is C. So whenever Windows swaps to disk it has to do the defragmentation all over again.

However you would have noticed it comes back to the last max percentage rather quickly. So you have to be quite patient about it. If you scandisk and defrag frequently it takes less time to complete this job.

Q5. Is Norton's speed disk freely downloadable and if so what is the address of the website. Is the speed disk a part of Norton antivirus.

Norton's speed disk is not a part of Norton's antivirus. It comes bundled with Norton utilities or Norton system works. You can obtain a CD of Norton system works from your local computer vendors. Speed disk takes half the time on drive C as compared to Microsoft's defragmenter.

Windows is a multi tasking operating system. You can open several windows simultaneously and each window may be different programmes performing different tasks. Apparently it may seem that all these programmes are having exclusive control of the microprocessor but it is not so. Each of the programmes get their turn. This means the processor has to keep a considerable amount of data in RAM which is far more than you have on your system. So, the Operating System writes this data on to a hard disk temporarily. This process is called swapping. Fragmenting does not usually occur in swapping.

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